Page 29, sentence one of the bill introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) says: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax.”

And the rest of the bill is clear that the Finance Committee does, in fact, consider it a tax: “The excise tax would be assessed through the tax code and applied as an additional amount of Federal tax owed.”

The bill requires every American, with few exceptions, to carry health insurance. To enforce this individual mandate, the Senate Finance Committee created the excise tax as a penalty for people who don’t have insurance – and it can run as much as $3,800 a year per family.

The House bill also refers to the penalties for not carrying insurance as a tax. It calls for a “tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage” and amends the tax code to implement it.

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Not only is this unconstitutional, but it is also UNAMERICAN. That is, this individual tax on health insurance runs contrary to the historic spirit of American Capitalism and Freedom.

How will a tax help people who DON'T have health insurance to GET health insurance? It won't. All a tax does is drain more money from the family fund--and eventually turns into a worsening cycle of tax, less money, no insurance, more tax, even LESS money, no insurance, etc. Sooner or later, the family may get to the point where they cannot afford the TAX! THEN what will they do?